All I told Jake was that I wanted the chipped and peeling paint fixed. I promise.
chipped, bubbling and peeling paint on the chimney and ceiling due to a water leak around the chimneyWednesday, April 10, 2024
Estamos renovando
Saturday, March 30, 2024
Estoy esperando.
I sit in my little call room waiting for the Urologist to finish putting a stent in the septic patient; so I can then take out my patient's appendix. It's been a long day already... pause as I flip screens to the OR status board... maybe in the last two minutes since I've last checked the case has finished. Nope, no such luck. It's been a long day already. Fitting for a long week, busy on call. Sometimes when the call week starts heavy it means the weekend is a bit more gentle on you. I like those weeks. But alas, as the nice sun shines over Indiana today, I run here and there throughout the hospital. Maybe I won't get to see the sun today, and that's okay. When the appendix wants to wreck havoc... there's not much stopping it.
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Estoy saltando
So glad it's a leap year! It means March won't be a repeat of February. I know... weird things annoy me. Worse that it's something I have absolutely no control over.
On a side note, today was the deadline I had made for myself last year to decide if I would extend my time in Togo, or return home as planned at the end of April. I didn't know at the time what returning home as planned ment, but felt a peace about finding out. God is good.
Last week was my call week. Thankfully with a little change. One of my favorite bands was coming to West Lafayette to play, and months ago we had bought tickets. When I saw of all weekends to be on call, I was assigned that weekend, I worked out an exchange with one of my partners. He actually suggested switching Saturday/Sunday, and I am so glad he did. I was able to fully relax and enjoy the evening rather than wonder the whole concert how my patients were doing and what would be waiting for me when the concert finished. In addition, that Friday call had kept me at the hospital until well after 11pm, and going into 48 more hours of call on little sleep like that doesn't make for an optimal experience.
My theme song since residency finished has been "Amen" by for King and Country. The concert was complete after they sang it that night, at least in my opinion! For a short period a couple years ago (without going into detail), I considered changing it, but I'm glad I stuck with it. The song has about as simple of a chorus as you can imagine,
"All the people say
Amen
Amen
All the people say
Amen
Amen, amen"
It has become a personal resolution, that in whatsoever stage of life I am, whatsoever difficulties, trials, or tribulations I am facing, to persist in this anthem. May we forever say Amen! with trust in our Lord and Savior never faltering.
They played Little Drummer Boy as their encore song. One of my favorite Christmas songs as it really struck a cord with me a few of those years while I was out in New York. Yet, like a few other "Christmas" songs, I feel it can be appropriate and applicable at any time of the year.
A new born King to see,
Our finest gifts we bring,
To lay before the King,
When we come
I am a poor boy too,
I have no gift to bring,
That's fit to give the King,
On my drum?
The ox and lamb kept time,
I played my drum for Him,
I played my best for Him,
Thursday, February 15, 2024
Estoy prosperando.
Have you ever been called on something that makes you wonder why it took someone so long to call you on it? For example, in residency, I'm not sure why but I had gotten stuck on the term globose to describe the typical obese American abdomen on the physical exam. I was a senior resident before an Attending called me on it. "What do you mean by globose?" Well... puzzled, I responded with the definition and a slew of synonyms. To which he responded with a general role of the eyes and essentially told me to stop the silliness and call it what it is... obese. I now realize the benefit of being as clear as possible yes, but there's also coding and risk factor calculations that are affected by a patient being obese, whereas "globose" can't be computed. This happened to me again recently, only this time it was a patient checking me. Without putting much thought into it, I've used the phrase "everything came out all right." in my general post op debrief, both with patients and their families. The vagueness, I thought, to my benefit as "everything" could be interpreted to be the specific anatomical structure I was operating on or the whole operation as a whole and both would be correct. The other day, after a quick debrief with my patient in the post anesthesia care unit I had dropped that line in my word vomit and started to move on, at which time my patient groggily and with closed eyes leaned towards the nurse and commented, "by everything, I hope she means my gallbladder!" As with before, I now realize the benefit of being as clear as possible, and I'm wondering just how many times I've left people confused. Why it took so long for someone to call me on the potential misleading words I had been using? I guess, thank goodness for the disinhibition effect of anesthesia!
Another definition I've been bemusing lately is thriving. "Thrive" essentially meaning to prosper or flourish, but the difficulty I'm having with all of those words is the subjectivity and/or lack of objectivity it carries. I had posted a few pictures from Nicaragua on social media last week. I received a comment, in statement form, "You're thriving," of course with an emoji for emphasis. The comment initially made me smile, but then I paused, hit by the reality of that statement. Did this mean it was assumed I hadn't been "thriving" before? I've run into this same conundrum before concerning the subjectivity of what it means to be "settled." Being asked by someone, "why don't I settle down?", when I already felt "settled." So what is thriving measured against? How often one posts on social media? If so, then yes, I do post more now than past years, and therefore could be considered thriving. But if you were to ask me in the past, with the exception of a few specific years out in New York, I would have answered, "yes, I feel I am thriving." By my definition, if you are where God wants you, doing what God wants you to be doing, then not only are you settled, but you're thriving.
Much Love.
Saturday, February 10, 2024
Estoy agradecida para el calor.
I'm thankful to see the sun showing itself again in the MidWest. It had been missed. January weather kept many, myself included, either at work or at home indoors. It is nice to once again have temperatures that will allow me to get outside and stretch the legs. We joke from time to time that God could end up sending us to Siberia. It's a joke, but seriously... I sometimes wonder if that would be a physical impossibility for me. Loosing fingers to frostbite one at a time, strikes me as cruel and unusual. But I digress, the sun has shone again and I still have all my fingers!
Jake and I headed out to the East Coast at the end of January. Spent some good time with friends and family there mainly focused on the work done last year in Togo and Honduras, but also projecting steps ahead of us. The following weekend we sought sunshine in Nicaragua. No other reason really than the flights were cheap and I had the weekend without call responsibility, so why not.
We were pleasantly surprised with Nicaragua and enjoyed it thoroughly. I had been expecting communities more similar to where we had been in Honduras. However, in Nicaragua we flew into the capital and stayed in that general region with more infrastructure and development, so honestly not really comparable to the mountainous countryside dotted with small villages where we had been in Honduras.
We did appreciate that the majority of the tourism built up (outside of the national parks) was funded by foreigners and not really Nicaraguans themselves. Still speaks to the poverty of the locals.
Much Love.